WHAT WE DO WITH OUR BRAINS ii 



bor's softer colors, and a reseating is imperative. Has 

 the choleric Colonel Blair composed his quarrel with 

 Mr. Nesbit? All this and more is done during the 

 flash of an eye, but in that tense moment we may be 

 sure that neurons to the number of countless millions 

 are all very busy, transmitting their messages hither 

 and yon throughout the entire cortex as now one then 

 another associational pattern is momentarily acti- 

 vated. 



The simplified neurologic schemata which we use 

 as pedagogic devices are necessary instruments for 

 unlocking those doors of the student's mind which 

 lead into the more recondite secrets of nervous 

 organization. But having opened the door in this 

 way, the key should be laid aside and not regarded 

 as even an adequate symbol of the actual organiza- 

 tion, as is so often done in both clinical and psycho- 

 logical practice. The inconceivable intricacy of the 

 structural connections within the brain is generally 

 underestimated even by neurologists. And to speak 

 of memories or any other unitary cortical functions 

 as localized in some particular cells or in some small 

 cortical areas is to talk neurologic nonsense. 



The known complexity of the brain, and especially 

 of its cerebral cortex which fills the massive dome of 

 the skull, is adequate for any theoretic explanation 

 of cerebral function whatsoever. There is no dearth 

 of mechanism. The problem is. What do these com- 

 plicated webs of interconnected nerve cells and fibers 



